Casinos worth even less of a gamble

Tuesday

Aug 30, 2011 at 3:15 AM

Foster's Daily Democrat has long opposed efforts to bring casino gambling to New Hampshire. It's estimated financial benefits are questionable while the social damage waiting to be done is unquestionable.

Thankfully, the battle to bring casinos to New Hampshire may finally be made moot through no effort here.

As Maine and Connecticut have added — then expanded — casino gambling, projected revenues have become that much more problematic for the Granite State.

Now Massachusetts officials look like they are ready to finally strike a deal that will add casinos to the Bay State's mix of gambling opportunities.

As the Boston Globe reported last week, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and the leaders of the House and Senate have "embraced a proposal that would license three casinos and one slot parlor in Massachusetts, uniting the key political players a year after their attempts to expand gambling collapsed in acrimony."

As the Globe explained, this "represents the state's third attempt in as many years to legalize casinos, but the first time that Patrick and legislative leaders have worked together to hammer out a proposal before bringing it to the full House and Senate. That collaboration could increase the bill's chances of passage by avoiding the kind of showdown that killed the legislation last year."

Should Massachusetts successfully move ahead, the only remaining excuse for New Hampshire to add casinos will be as a defensive move.

Based on a 2010 report by Gov. John Lynch's Gaming Study Committee the state would be expected to see $70 million a year head to Massachusetts unless casinos were added to the mix in New Hampshire.

The report went on to estimate a net of $90 million after social costs.

But that was then. Today New England and the nation are looking at a possible double-dip recession, unemployment is expected to remain above 8 percent nationally until 2014, and inflation is eating into what little disposable income Granite Staters have remaining.

Also of concern is New Hampshire's history in dealing with its gambling industry.

Readers may remember when Seabrook Greyhound Park opened to dreams of great revenues for New Hampshire ... and it did as promised for several years. Eventually, however, racing handles began to wane. Seabrook went to the state, hat in hand, begging to keep more of the money wagered, thus cutting the state's take.

Eventually, the Seabrook track offered the state so little, its pleas for relief became faint howls at the moon and its flow of tax revenue irrelevant.

New Hampshire cannot afford to become hostage to the gambling industry again and to make promises to its citizenry based on revenues that may be here one day and gone the next.

Instead, the Granite State needs to stay its fiscally frugal course while fine tuning its existing gaming operations rather than venture into casino wars with surrounding states.